Other than simple arithmetic operations, it is difficult to correctly round a mathematical function using floating point numbers. The IEEE-754 standard is the most commonly adopted standard for representing and manipulating floating point numbers in computer hardware and software. The IEEE standard also describes the rounding of floating point operations. However, implementation of the standard does not guarantee the same rounding performance among different computing platforms in certain situations.
Each computing platform (architecture/operating system combination) has its own floating point libraries of mathematical functions. Implementations vary to accommodate the platform's capabilities. Since there is no standard for mathematical libraries, different results are often obtained when moving from one platform to another. These differences are typically small, but still can have a significant impact on the overall computed result in certain programs. If correct rounding could be achieved at almost no cost, it would be in the programming community's interest to have floating point library functions correctly rounded.
A solution that addresses the aforementioned problems, as well as other related problems, is therefore desirable.